European leaders must not “fall” for the tactics of Vladimir Putin, the Czech president, Petr Pavel, has said, two days after Hungary’s prime minister shook hands with Russia’s leader. Viktor Orbán, in a rare move for the leader of a country that belongs to the EU and Nato, met Putin in Beijing on Tuesday for what the Hungarian leader’s office described as a discussion on energy cooperation and peace. Hungary has long been criticised for democratic backsliding at home and its Russia- and China-friendly policies abroad. Its foreign minister, Péter…
Tag: Ukraine
Putin calls US supply of ATACMS weapons to Ukraine ‘another mistake’
Vladimir Putin has called the US delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Kyiv “another mistake by the United States” in his first public comments since an unprecedented Ukrainian strike destroyed helicopters at two airfields in Russian-occupied territory this week. The Russian president also claimed that the delivery of the army tactical missile system (ATACMS) missiles, which can strike targets more than 100 miles away and deliver salvoes with cluster munitions, would “not do Ukraine any good either. It will simply prolong [their] agony.” Yet the missiles have struck one…
Putin Takes Center Stage at China’s Belt and Road Forum
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Beijing this week is giving him a rare chance to meet with other world leaders and deepen Moscow’s “no limits” relationship with China. In China, Putin will attend Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative forum, which began Tuesday and ends Wednesday. He will deliver a speech, meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and hold a press conference. Putin’s trip to Beijing is his second overseas since the International Criminal Court put out a warrant for his arrest in March. Earlier this month, he traveled to…
‘A dangerous game’: Republican chaos and indecision as crises shake the world
The US’s closest ally in the Middle East is reeling from what many call its “9/11” and now a humanitarian disaster looms in Gaza. Winter is approaching in Ukraine, which needs urgent supplies to maintain its counteroffensive against Russia. From China’s expansive ambitions, to coups in Africa, to the climate crisis, the world is crying out for leadership. But on Capitol Hill in Washington, Republicans can’t find one. Friday marked the 10th day of paralysis as the party struggles to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives to replace…
Americans Are Losing Faith in U.S. Democracy as Far Right Revolts
There was a time, not that long ago, when the United States presumed to teach the world how it was done. When it held itself up as a model of a stable, predictable democracy. When it sent idealistic young avatars to distant parts of the globe to impart the American way. These days, to many watching at home and abroad, the American way no longer seems to offer a case study in effective representative democracy. Instead, it has become an example of disarray and discord, one that rewards extremism, challenges…
Athens Democracy Forum: Daring to Hope That Democracy Will Prevail
That Mr. Putin had to journey to North Korea last month to seek support for a long war was a measure of his humiliating isolation, whatever Russia’s ascendancy in Africa, where it has contrived to present itself as an anticolonial power even as it fights a form of colonial war aimed at reabsorbing Ukraine, or much of it, into the “Russkiy Mir,” or Russian world. Ukraine, of course, is fighting for democracy, freedom, the sanctity of sovereignty and the right of a sovereign state to choose its strategic direction. This…
Ukraine’s War of Drones Runs Into an Obstacle: China
Surrounded by rooms filled with stacks of cluster munitions and half-made thermobaric bombs, a soldier from Ukraine’s 92nd Mechanized Brigade recently worked on the final part of a deadly supply chain that stretches from China’s factories to a basement five miles from the front lines of the war with Russia. This is where Ukrainian soldiers turn hobbyist drones into combat weapons. At a cluttered desk, the soldier attached a modified battery to a quadcopter so it could fly farther. Pilots would later zip tie a homemade shell to the bottom…
War in Ukraine is revealing a new global order – and the ‘power south’ is the winner | Nathalie Tocci
It came as an unpleasant surprise to many in Europe and North America that so many countries – many more than the 30 or so that abstained in UN votes condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine – refused to go along with sanctions on Putin’s Russia. Forty countries sanction Russia, but two-thirds of the world’s population live in countries that do not. The geopolitical split over Russia’s war on Ukraine emerged starkly again at the recent G20 summit in India in early September. A consensus could only be reached…
Biden, in U.N. Speech, Calls for Action on Ukraine and Other Crises
While he took an unrelenting stance against Russia’s brutal war and warned against appeasing Moscow, he drew a more measured line on China, repeating his commitment to “push back on aggression and intimidation” by Beijing while seeking ways to work together and denying that he was trying to contain the Asian giant. “We seek to responsibly manage the competition between our countries so it does not tip into conflict,” he said. Mr. Biden mentioned a litany of other major issues confronting the world today, like fentanyl abuse, artificial intelligence, terrorism,…
Putin and Kim’s Embrace May Place Xi in a Bind
To challenge the power of his chief rival, the United States, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has linked arms with two anti-Western states, declaring a “no limits” partnership with Russia and pledging “unswerving” support for North Korea. But the specter of a budding bromance between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, after their meeting this week in eastern Russia, may not be as welcome a development for Mr. Xi as it might initially seem. Closer ties between Pyongyang and Moscow could result in…